Coke oven door holding apparatus



June 29, 1965 G, c. NESTLER 3,191,778

COKE OVEN DOOR HOLDING APPARATUS Filed Aug. 16. .1963

United States Patent O 3,191,778 COKE OVEN DR HLDING APPARATUS Gilbert C. Nestler, Pittsburgh, Pa., assigner to Kappers Company, Inc., a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 16, 1963, Ser. No. 302,533 3 Claims. (Cl. 212-4) The present invention relates to apparatus for holding coke oven doors during cleaning and repair of the doors. More particularly, the invention relates to a rack for holding the coke oven door and for enabling rotation of the door about its longitudinal axis While the door is in horizontal position so that either or both sides of the door can be cleaned or repaired from the top.

Horizontal coke ovens for the production of gas and coke are provided with coking chambers in which coal is formed into coke by thermolytic distillation. Both ends of each coking chamber are provided with openings. The opening on one serves for introducing a pusher ram into the chamber, and the other opening is used for discharging the coked mass.

The openings at both sides of the coking chambers are closed by means of doors of which the inner side is provided With a brick lining consisting of refractory material. The refractory lining extends more or less into the chamber to be closed, and is usually manufactured out of individual refractory bricks. It is also known to make the refractory lining out of a unitary mass which is stamped onto a lining retainer girder provided on the door for the lining.

The refractory brick lining of the coke oven door is exposed to extremely high stress during the operation of the ovens. When a door is inserted into a hot coke oven chamber, the refractory lining of the door is raised to the high temperatures at which the coal is coked. The hot refractory lining is then suddenly subjected to atmospheric temperatures when the coking chamber is opened and the coke oven door is removed. Because of the great temperature gradients to which the coke door is subjected the refractory brickwork or the ystamped mass is highly stressed. The sudden changes of temperature to which the refractory material is subjected often causes cracking and crumbling of the refractory material. Consequently, coke oven doors have to be repaired quite often. The repair of coke oven doors requires that individual bricks of the lining or the Whole lining be replaced.

On the side of the coke oven door opposite the refractory brick lining, there is a complicated system of latches and operating mechanism which is subjected to high stress when the door is forced into the door opening by a door machine and .the mechanism operated to latch the door in place. Equal stress occurs upon opening of the door and the mechanism, at thnes, is damaged. It is, therefore, necessary to periodically clean or repair either or both sides of a coke oven door.

It is an object of this invention to provide an improved apparatus which allows workmen to carry out repairs on both sides ofcoke oven doors in a simple, facile and safe way.

It is already known to provide a rack equipment for coke oven doors at the end of a horizontal coke oven battery. A rack of the known type is shown in U.S. Patent No. 2,232,150 issued to Lambert Timmerman on February 18, 1941. This known type of rack equipment 3,l9l,778 Patented June 29, 1965 ICC is formed by a vertical frame in which the coke oven door may be fastened in the same manner in which the coke oven door is fastened in an oven. The door is moved into the rack by a conventional door manipulating machine of the coke oven battery, and is then affixed to the frame. The door can then be repositioned on the frame into a horizontal position in such a Way that the4 refractory brick lining lies upward. After the coke oven door cools down, repairs may be carried out on the refractory lining of the door which is fairly well accessible when in the rack equipment.

According to the Timmerman Patent No. 2,232,150, the repair rack equipment which takes up the coke oven door duringthe repairing work consists of a movable door repair suspension frame into which the coke oven door to be repaired is suspended or fastened in' a suitable manner, said frame being movably arranged in rails or the like having a vertical and horizontal part so that the movable frame carrying the door to be repaired may be brought from the vertical position in which the door is fastened to the rack into horizontal or nearly horizontal position for the purpose of performing the neces-sary repairs to the refractory material.

The apparatus of the prior art had certain disadvantages. A major disadvantage of the Timmerman equipment is that it provided means to work on only one side of the coke oven door. If repairs were necessary on the other side of the door they had to be performed while the door was in a vertical position. In addition, the Timmerman apparatus suffered from the disadvantage that the heavy door holding rack had to be lifted and manipulated to reposition it from a vertical to a horizontal position.

In accordance with my invention, improved equipment is provided which includes a rotatable door holding rack means being positioned within a sliding frameto allow rotation of the door holding rack around its longitudinal axis for maintenance and repair of the coke oven door on either side thereof. In addition, a `stop mechanism is provided to hold the coke oven door in place in a vertical position until such time as it is desired to move the coke oven door into horizontal position. All that is then necesary is to remove the stops and lower the rack.

In accordance with my invention there is therefore provided repair rack equipment for holding coke oven doors with an inner brick lining for repair of either side of said door comprising a rigid stationary vertical frame with vertical side guide rails. Connected to the bottom of said vertical yframe is a rigid stationary horizontal frame with horizontal side guide rails. The stationary vertical frame is connected to the stationary horizontal frame by inclined or curved side guide rails whereby the stationary horizontal frame forms a lateral extension of the stationary vertical frame. A door holding rack is provided for holding the door in place, and the door holding rack is rotatable about its longitudinal axis. The door holding rack is mounted in a sliding frame having sliding elements mounted thereon, and the sliding frame is mounted for sliding cooperative movement with the guide rails on the stationary vertical and horizontal frames.

When using the coke oven door repair rack of this invention, it is possible to bring the coke oven door to be repaired into such a position that repairs may be carried out either to the refractory brick lining or to the latch mechanism. With the door in horizontal position and the refractory brick lining in an upward position, the various bricks of the lining maintain their proper position even though one or another of the bricks is taken out. Consequently, it is easy to exchange the damaged bricks without causing the bricks lying over them to slide down. It is also advantageous to repair the latching mechanism when the door is horizontal and the latching mechanism is in an upward position.

The above and further objects and novel features of the invention will appear more fully from the detailed description when the same is read in conjunction with the` accompanying drawing. It is to be expressly understood, however, that the drawing is not intended to be a denition of the invention but is for the purpose of illustration only.

In the accompanying drawing:

FIGURE 1 is a front view of the apparatus of the invention,

FIGURE 2 is a vertical cross-sectional View of said apparatus, and

FIGURE 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional View taken on lines 3 3 of FIG. l.

In the drawing wherein like parts are marked alike, the rack equipment comprises a vertical stationary frame having vertical stationary rails 11. The rails 11 are connected together at their upper and lower ends by channel iron connecting means 12. Inclined rails 14 are connected to the bottom of the vertical rails 11, and to this inclined rail 14 are joined horizontal rails 16 which form a horizontal stationary frame. The horizontal rails 16 rest on supports 1S.

A sliding frame 20 is supported in the stationary frames formed by the rails 1l, 14, and 16. The sliding frame 20 comprises two channel irons 22, 24 which are connected at their tops and bottoms by cross webs 26, 28. The sliding frame 20 is siidably positioned in stationary lframe formed by the rails l1, 14, and 16 by means of wheels 3i) which slide between the rails 11, 14, I6 of the stationary frame. At the top of cross web 26, the sliding frame 20 is connected by pulley wheel means 33 with pulling means 32 moving over roll 34. Roll 34 is mounted in bearing kmeans 36 which, in turn, is rigidly mounted on channel iron 12. Pulling means 32 advantageously comprises a cable which is rigidly fixed at one end thereof to the framework of the stationary frame It) by means of anchor 38 (FIG. 2). The other end of cable means 32 is actuated to raise and lower sliding frame 26 by suitable means (not shown) such as a winch.

A door holding rack itl is mounted in the sliding frame 20. Door holding rack 40 comprises two channel irons 42, 44 which form the side rails of the door holding rack 4t) and cross webs 46, 43 forming the top and bottom portions of the rack. Each of the cross webs 46, 48 is provided with a pivot 50, 52 which extends outwardly from the cross webs 46, 48 and are journaled in bearing blocks 54, 56 on the cross webs 26, 23 of the sliding frame 2t).

The pivots 50, S2 are carefully centered to provide an even distribution of Weight to either side of the pivot pins. With the door holding rack positioned in this manner and mounted on pivots 50, 52, the door holding rack can be rotated about its longitudinal axis to position the coke oven door 60 in any desired position for cleaning and repair. For example, when the sliding frame 20 is resting in the horizontal stationary frame, the coke oven door can be positioned with the refractory brick in an upward position. If it is then desired to turn the door so that the latching mechanism is in an upward position, the door holding rack can be rotated about its longitudinal axis.

Rotation of the door holding rack is effected by suitable means such as a worm gear 62 which drives a wheel 64. The wheel 64- is connected to the pivot 52 of the door holding rack 40. The worm gear 62 is driven by suitable means (not Shown) such as a motor or by hand.

' When the door holding rack 4% is in the desired position,

lock bar means 66 is brought into position to hold the door holding rack in the desired position.

The coke oven door 60 is inserted into the door holding rack while the rack is in vertical position in the vertical stationary frame itl. The door holding rack 40 is provided with latches 68 onto which the latch bars of the coke oven door are attached to hold the coke oven door tightly in place in the door holding rack 4i). To maintain the sliding frame 20 in vertical position in the vertical statonary frame llt?, there are provided wheel stop means 70. The wheel stop means '73 lit into apertures in the rails 14 just below the top of the inclined section of the stationary frame. Once the coke oven door has been mounted in the door holding rack 40, all that need be done to lower the door to horizontal position is to remove the wheel bar stops 7i) and lower the sliding frame 20 by actuation of pulling means 32.

In operation, the coke oven door is removed from the coke oven by means of a conventional door machine and is placed within the door holding rack 40 which is maintained in vertical position in the vertical stationary frame l1. The coke oven door 6) is secured to the door holding rack lili by means of the latching mechanism, and the door is allowed to remain in this position until it cools A suiciently to enable Work to be done thereon. The wheel bar stop means 76 are then removed and the door is lowered into horizontal position by means 32.

When the sliding frame is in horizontal position with the coke oven door mounted in the door holding rack, the refractory portion of the coke oven door will be in an upward position. Cleaning and repair of the refractory material can be carried out in this position and when such cleaning and repair has been completed the lock bars 66 can be moved out of locking position and the worm gear 62 can then be actuated to turn wheel 64 thus rotating the entire door holding rack 4i) around its longitudinal axis until the other side of the coke. oven door is in the upward position, at which time the worm gear 62 can be stopped and the lock bars 66 can be placed in locking position. Cleaning and repair of the latching mechanism can then be carried out.

I claim:

1.- Apparatus for handling coke oven doors comprising:

(a) a guide structure having interconnected vertical and horizontal spaced apart side rail members;

(b) a first frame structure having elements cooperative with said rails whereby said frame structure is movable in a path determined by said side rails;

(c) a second frame iournaled to said rst frame and rotatable about an axis extending lengthwise of said rst frame;

(d) meansffor holding and maintaining a coke oven door against said second frame; and

(e) means to pivot said second frame and thereby a coke oven door about said axis to selected positions.

2. The invention of claim 1 wherein:

(a) power means is provided to rotate said second frame about said axis.

3. Apparatus for holding coke oven doors with an inner brick lining, for repair of either side of said door, comprising:

(a) a rigid stationary vertical frame with vertical side guide rails,

(b) a rigid stationary horizontal frame with horizontal side guide rails,

(c) an inclined stationary frame having side guide rails connecting said vertical and horizontal frames,

(d) a sliding frame,

(e) means for slidably mounting said sliding frame in said stationary frames,

(f) means for temporarily holding said sliding frame in said stationary vertical frame,

(g) means for moving rsaid sliding frame relative to said stationary frames,

V'OUM (h) a door holding rack for holding the coke oven door,

(i) means for rotatably mounting said door holding rack in said sliding frame, and

(j) means for rotating said door holding rack about its longitudinal axis whereby a coke oven door held in said door holding rack can be rotated to place either side of said coke oven door in an upward position when said sliding frame is in a horizontal position.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,232,150 2/41 Timmerman 212-4 FOREIGN PATENTS 79,645 ll/ 55 Netherlands.

SAMUEL F. COLEMAN, Primary Examiner.

ANDRES H. NIELSE, Examiner. 

1. APPARATUS FOR HANDLING COKE OVEN DOORS COMPRISING: (A) A GUIDE STRUCTURE HAVING INTERCONNECTED VERTICAL AND HORIZONTAL SPACED APART SIDE RAIL MEMBERS; (B) A FIRST FRAME STRUCTURE HAVING ELEMENTS COOPERATIVE WITH SAID RAILS WHEREBY SAID FRAME STRUCTURE IS MOVABLE IN A PATH DETERMINED BY SAID SIDE RAILS; (C) A SECOND FRAME JOURNALED TO SAID FIRST FRAME AND ROTATABLE ABOUT AN AXIS EXTENDING LENGTHWISE OF SAID FIRST FRAME; (D) MEANS FOR HOLDING AND MAINTAINING A COKE OVEN DOOR AGAINST SAID SECOND FRAME; AND 